Wal-Mart Moves Onto Amazon's Turf With E-Reader Partnership

27/01/2018

E-commerce giant Rakuten and retail behemoth Walmart are taking aim at Amazon in a partnership that will see the two companies launch an online grocery delivery service in Japan while offering e-readers, e-books and audiobooks to American Walmart customers.

Home to more than 75 million online shoppers, the country has the world's third biggest ecommerce market after the USA and China.

The deal "enables us to quickly and efficiently launch a full eBook and audiobook catalog on Walmart.com", Scott Hilton, chief revenue officer for Wal-Mart's USA e-commerce unit, wrote in a blog post Thursday. It won't be doing this alone, either, as it'll be backed by Rakuten, an e-commerce company operating out of Japan.

The deal - which Walmart's chief executive, Doug McMillon, flew to Tokyo to announce - will allow Walmart's online grocery business in Japan to expand exponentially.

Both Walmart and Rakuten also said they will open a warehouse to service these orders in addition to using Seiyu stores.

"We are excited to partner with Walmart because of its commitment to creating the best solutions to serve customers with low prices", Mikitani added.

Seiyu is a Walmart-owned supermarket chain in Japan which operates a grocery delivery service through local stores.

Wal-Mart is not the only big name USA company looking for partners in Asia, as it emerged Thursday that grocery giant Kroger (KR) and Chinese e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba (BABA) have recently chatted about potentially working together. The partnership will include opening a combined e-commerce fulfillment center in the Tokyo area to deliver groceries to a wider area.

Walmart will become Rakuten Kobo's exclusive mass retail partner for the Kobo brand in the US. "I'm not sure how Kobo will fare in the U.S.", Sato said. Kobo already has apps across these platforms, but it seems the two companies will make new apps for Walmart customers in the USA to use.

Walmart said it will sell Rakuten's Kobo e-readers and content in the United States, as well as jointly launch a grocery delivery service in Japan.

The eBook and audiobook offering will be fully integrated into the Walmart online shopping experience, and customers will be able to buy these versions as well as the physical book while shopping for their favorite titles.

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